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Murdered girl always thought of others

Posted August 07, 2007 11:00 pm

Maureen Walsh

When Jerry Mullin offered to buy his daughter Joanna two Webkinz toys for being so good, she answered, "I only need one, so can we get one for Jeffrey? He wants the bulldog."

"She was very unselfish, very unspoiled. She was always thinking of someone else," said Joanna's maternal aunt, Lisa Davis. "When she went shopping, she didn't shop for herself, but picked out things for her friends and her brothers."

Six-year-old Joanna was taken from her grandmother's home over the weekend, authorities said, her body discovered in the back seat of an SUV that crashed shortly after 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The driver, her 20-year-old cousin Ryan Bois, has been charged in Joanna's death. (See related story.)

"It's so awful. She was just a good kid," said Davis. "Her mother wants people to be able to remember the good things and not concentrate on the end. She was a wonderful little girl."

Joanna was the oldest of three children of the former Heather Daley and Jerry Mullin of East Weymouth. She was baptized at Immaculate Conception Parish church and named Joanna Arlene in honor of her maternal grandmother, Arlene White.

"She adored my mother and my mother adored her," said Davis.

Both of Joanna's parents grew up in Weymouth and many members of her extended family still live in town, her aunt said. Her two brothers are Jeffrey, age 4, and James, 14 months.

'Supergirl' 

"She loved animals and Webkinz. Her favorites were Leopard and Tiger-she was particularly fond of the cat family," said Davis. "She wanted to be a veterinarian someday."

Joanna also loved to draw and recently traced and colored a Superman emblem from a birthday party invitation.

"It was perfect. She cut it out and stuck it on her chest to be Supergirl," said Davis. "Then she made another one for James, so he could be Superbaby."

Joanna was an active little girl who had taken dance lessons and gymnastics lessons and loved to play on the backyard trampoline and waterslide.

"She loved soccer. She played for two years and one game she got four goals," her aunt said.

She was a Daisy Girl Scout, who looked forward to being a Brownie this year.

When Joanna turned six on July 15, she had a big birthday party with her friends, said Davis. "They had a 'Wheel of Wow' her father built, and some kids won Webkinz, some got toys or Ring-Pops."

"Her mom says all she thought about was her friends. If you asked her what she wanted, she never demanded anything."

Counseling offered 

Joanna had attended pre-school at the Johnson School and kindergarten at the Pingree School, where her aunt said she was looking forward to first grade and "trying to learn to read and write words."

Counseling services for students and their families and school department staff will be offered at the Pingree School from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day this week through Friday, said assistant school superintendent Mary Jo Livingstone. "Certainly if someone needs support beyond that, we will work individually with them."

Joanna's is the third traumatic student death to rock the Weymouth schools community in less than a year. Johnson Pre-School student Rebecca Riley, age 4, died of a prescription medicine overdose on Dec. 13, 2006, and Chapman Middle School student Taylor Bates, age 13, died June 26 from head injuries sustained in a bike accident.

Several priests have come to the Mullin home to comfort the family, Davis said, but at press time no funeral arrangements had been made. The family is discussing some kind of gift or memorial in honor of the little girl who was always thinking of someone else.

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